Written from the Heart
by Blue-Beast85
Summary: Estelle loves to write, but is having trouble with her second book. Yuri tries to help by reading it which would be fine if it wasn't a romance about Estelle and him. Can Yuri give her advice to finish the story or will he make things more complicated?


**I've written for other Tales games before, so I thought I would give this one a try!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Tales games or the characters and setting associated with it.**

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Literature had been her friend for as long as Estelle could remember. Reading about past civilizations, the geography of the world, sciences of all sorts, and simple assertions and expectations of what the world would be in the future, Estelle found books teeming with knowledge, an endless supply too!

Yet, if she had to pick one genre that she loved the most was fantasy. Heroes and dragons, princesses and knights, far off places, exciting adventures, all while traveling the world. She would almost be saddened when she finished story after story, thinking that her life was nothing like the ones in her cherished books. She was a princess, but instead of going on adventures, saving people, and falling in love, Estelle lived a life where she was like a prisoner in her own castle.

She could never be alone. Guards watched her for protection, the Council always had issues to speak with her about, and suitors were always coming to impress her. Her life was dreary and nothing like the story books.

It was not until she met Yuri on that fateful night had she finally lived out her own story. With one hasty decision, she and Yuri left the palace behind, starting out on their own adventure. Soon they were traveling to far off lands, protecting the innocent, bringing justice to the unjust, and saving the world from the impending Adephagos.

But, like all stories, her story with Brave Vesperia had to come to end. The guild started its new life in a world without blastia. Raven went back to Dahngrest to look over the guilds along with Karol, Judith, and Ba'ul, Karol excited about expanding their guild. Rita, who no longer had her house in Aspio, found her new home in Halure, trying to create new ways to do things without the use of blastia.

A slight smile graced Estelle's features as she recalled the mage's last letter, ranting about how she feels likes she's in a sea of stupidity when dealing a majority of the other researchers, but that they are slowly getting better. Estelle couldn't understand most of what the rest of the letter talked about, but she could tell Rita was happy with the advances she was making.

Last there was Yuri and, of course, Repede. The duo still belonged to the guild Brave Vesperia, so life in Dahngrest, and around the world, was a definite. But, the man and his canine companion would return to Zaphias every so often to take a break and visit Estelle, keeping her up-to-date on the news of the world.

Estelle was always at her happiest when any of her friends came to visit, especially Yuri. Castle life had taken a turn for the boring. Ioder was now Emperor, having been sworn in seven months earlier, and Captain Flynn was now Commandant Flynn, and both of them had important duties to attend to. So Estelle had felt at a loss not having two of her close friends at her side anymore.

Earlier in the year, things had been fine. Brave Versperia's adventures had been an inspiration to her. Deciding on something for once in her own life, Estelle sat amongst the thousands of books she had read, and finally wrote of her own: Tales of Vesperia.

Tales of Vesperia had been a hit. Bookkeepers couldn't keep the story on their shelf for a few days without it selling out. The printers could barely keep up.

Estelle had been stunned at all the positive feedback. Fan mail came pouring into the palace, praising Estelle's story commenting on the character development, the imagery, the plot, and just about everything that makes a great book. Some even inquired if she would consider making a sequel. Estelle had never felt that cheerful.

Time did pass, and though letters still continued to come to the castle, Estelle felt the high she wrote from her first book fade.

So that's why when Yuri came to visit, he found Estelle in the library surrounded by paper balls littered on the floor and a fortress of paper stacked a few inches high on an oak desk. Currently, the young princess had her head resting on the desk, softly snoring.

Yuri chuckled while Repede grunted, trotting over to the fire, coming to rest on a comfy rug.

When Yuri realized that Estelle would not be waking up anytime soon, he spoke up, "You know Estelle," Estelle's head quickly rose at the sound of his voice, "if you own writing puts you to sleep that much then maybe you should consider rewriting it."

The princess's eyebrows knotted as she pouted, "I did not fall asleep because of my story," she smoothed out some of her papers, "I was simply resting my eyes."

Yuri smirked, "Really?"

"Yes, really," Estelle said, trying to regain some of her poise.

"Then you already know about the piece of paper stuck to your cheek?"

Estelle frowned, "There is no paper stuck to my cheek—" Yuri laughed as Estelle's fingers met the paper causing her cheeks to be heated into a fiery scarlet as she hastily removed the parchment from her face.

Estelle swatted the paper away, but the swordsman only continued to laugh.

"Yuri, you're terrible!" Estelle cried out.

Estelle's jaw dropped when she heard a few doggish snorts follow Yuri's loud laughs.

"You too, Repede!" The princess, unhappy with being the center of their joke, crossed her arms and slumped in her chair.

When Yuri finally gained control of his laughter, he walked over to Estelle, "We were only joking with you, Estelle."

He glanced down at a few sketches of people and places under papers of neat cursive handwriting. Some sentences had been crossed out and others had notes written in the margins.

"What are you working on?"

"I wouldn't want to bore you to sleep with the details," Estelle replied indignant.

Yuri shrugged, "I guess I'm just going have to read and find out."

He reached out for one of the pages, yet he had only managed to grab one before Estelle snatched up the rest of her story.

"Yuri, don't!"

Yuri looked up from the page at Estelle, "Why?"

Estelle began to stammer, "B-because, because…" her eyes lit up, "because I have writer's block!"

Yuri studied Estelle suspiciously, "Writer's block, huh?"

"Yes, writer's block!" Estelle replied, nodding vigorously, "Now if you would just hand that back to me…" Estelle reached for the parchment in Yuri's hand when he suddenly pulled it out of reach.

"Well, Estelle," the princess didn't like the smirk on his face, "if you really have writer's block you wouldn't mind me reading it to help you," his smirk grew even bigger, "you know, to help to get you out of your 'writer's block.'"

Estelle couldn't find anything to say, "I g-guess that wouldn't hurt, but I would really appreciate it if you didn't—" It was too late. She could already see Yuri's eyes darting across the page.

Her stomach twisted into knots. Before she had fallen asleep, she had been writing a romance scene between two of her main characters. It was after an intense battle scene where the leads had finally found out where the heroine's, supposedly kidnapped, father was. He had been hiding away in an abandoned castle, and had actually been the one sending the assassins after the hero, who she had teamed up with to save her father. The heroine had become distressed at the information. She became torn between returning to her father or staying with the hero, a swordsman, while on this adventure, she had developed feelings for, falling in love with him.

Estelle had modeled the two characters after Yuri and herself respectively as the hero and heroine. It was much like her feelings on her own adventure that she had excluded in Tales of Vesperia, knowing that if Yuri read it he could easily figure out which character was which, thus revealing Estelle's feelings for him. But in this book she had made up completely different characters in a different plot, hiding her true emotions.

"_Maybe he won't notice?"_ Estelle shook her head at the thought, _"Who am I kidding! I described the hero's looks and personality traits so that they fit Yuri's perfectly!" _She wanted to curl up into a ball and hide, _"And how many people have pink hair! It will be obvious that the heroine is me! He basically reading a romance scene about us, and he probably doesn't feel the same way! He will probably think ill of me after this."_

Estelle could feel her hands shaking as Yuri looked up. She expected to see taunting eyes gazing at her, but instead Yuri's eyes held a sort of gentleness in them.

They stared into each other's eyes for a moment before Yuri broke the gaze, coughing somewhat awkwardly.

"W-well, it's well written," a slight blush dusted his cheeks.

Estelle's blush was much worse, her face was a boiling fire, "T-thank you. Your opinion means a lot to me." She responded a little put off that was all he had to say. Maybe he hadn't realized that it was about the two of them.

Yuri, sensing her disappointment, skimmed over the page again and continued on, "Yeah it's great. I could really feel the emotion and depth behind the writing, almost like it was coming alive. You are a very talent writer, Estelle. I could almost see it unfolding right in front of my eyes," Yuri paused for a moment, "but…"

Estelle looked up in surprise, "But? But what? I thought you said it was great!"

The swordsman chuckled a little at her reaction before answering, "It's all great, Estelle, except for one thing."

"Yes?" Estelle asked curiously.

Yuri bent down a little so that his head was level with Estelle's, "You have the hero deny the heroine. Why would you do that?"

Estelle was a little nervous under his steady gaze, "Because I didn't think he felt the same way."

"But it's obvious that he loves her as much as she loves him."

It didn't seem like they were talking about the story anymore.

"What? How do you know that?" Estelle asked shocked.

Yuri gave a small smirk before explaining, "Well he's protected her from deadly assassins, vicious beasts, and the just plain crazy, and he basically almost sacrificed himself in that last battle so that she wouldn't be hurt. She's basically a bunch of trouble for him, but he never blames her," Yuri smiled, "Plus even though he knows that her father is out to kill him, he still stays," he hands her the page, "If that isn't love then, I don't know what love is."

Pink eyebrows furrowed as the princess began to think, "But he never told her his feelings."

Yuri shrugged, "He didn't need to. He told her every day by his actions. Besides," Yuri's face once again had a light shade of pink across it, "he's obviously not good with that kind of stuff. Goes in contrast with his cynical nature."

"So basically they are both in love with each other, but neither one knows it?"

"I guess." Yuri answered playing with one of Estelle's gold plated pens.

"Well, how would you write this scene?" Estelle's eyebrows raised as Yuri dropped the pen, almost like her was nervous.

"Well," Yuri said searching for words, "I would give them a break."

"A break?"

"Yeah, I mean the heroine just got some pretty big news. She needs some time to think, plus it gives a little suspense to the reader, thinking that they might just end up apart."

Estelle smiled at his creativeness, "Okay, Mr. Writer, what else?"

Yuri rolled his eyes at Estelle's smugness, "Then while the heroine was on her break the hero would show up out of the blue, telling her that he needs her."

Estelle blushed a bright red, "I thought you said he would never admit his feelings to her."

Yuri raised his hands nonchalantly, "He has enough sense to swallow his pride when he misses her that much."

"What would he say?"

Yuri kneeled down to Estelle's height as she sat in the chair, "He would say that he's crazy about her, and that he misses their adventures together, even if she was a little clumsy and ended up getting them into a lot of dangerous situations."

Estelle crossed her arms, "I don't think the heroine would respond well to that."

"That so?" Yuri questioned.

The princess nodded sophisticatedly, closing her eyes.

"Well, if she wouldn't except that," Yuri leaned in closer, so that his face was mere inches away from Estelle's, "he would just have to show her how much he loved her," his voice faded to a whisper, "with a kiss."

Her eyes shot open, "A—" Estelle never had chance to finish. Yuri's lips were already on hers.

Now Estelle had never experienced a kiss before, she had only read about them in stories. And from what she was feeling right now, what was written in her books were nowhere close to the happiness that had engulfed her.

Her shaky hands had stopped shaking and were now on Yuri's chest, but one traveled up further to his shoulder, his hair tickling her fingers. Butterflies that were in her stomach seemed to be set free, spreading to this rest of her body. Her eyes were closed, but her other senses went into overdrive. She could smell grass and a tree breeze along with the smoke from a campfire. Underneath her hand, she could feel his rapid heartbeat and warm skin. His taste made her heart race: cinnamon and apple gels. She almost giggled at the later, he tasted so sweet. Estelle was astonished when she heard Yuri groan, pulling her further into his embrace all the while deepening the kiss.

His lips were chapped, but Estelle didn't care for she could only feel a tingling sensation on hers. Everything was ten times as sensational and perfect than anything she had read in her story books.

It was only when they both needed air, did Estelle part.

Yuri smirked at Estelle's flustered face, "If she didn't respond to that, he would probably just keep kissing her until she did."

Estelle's eyes were on her finger as she traced his lips. Her emerald orbs met obsidian ones.

"And what if she did? What if she enjoyed his kiss?"

Yuri smirked and whispered, "Well, then he would kiss her again then too."

Yuri seized Estelle's lips once again, but this time he pulled her so that they were both on the ground hidden if some was to walk in. A few minutes into their kiss, there was a knock on the door.

"Lady Estellise?" It was Flynn's voice.

Estelle's eyes flew open. She hurriedly pushed herself off of Yuri to stand, smoothing out her wrinkled clothes and messy hair.

"Enter." Estelle called out, her voice squeaking and heart pounding.

Flynn opened the door, and look suspiciously at the fallen mounds of paper.

"Is everything all right, Lady Estellise?"

Estelle quickly answered, "Yes, of course! Everything is fine! How can I help you Commandant Flynn?" she said hastily, trying to change the subject.

Flynn shook his head, "Of course, my apologies. The Council wanted me to tell you that there will be a meeting after dinner tonight."

"T-thank you, Flynn! I will be sure to be there!" She waved at Flynn, "Goodbye Commandant."

Flynn nodded a little warily before saying goodbye and departing.

Once the doors were close, Estelle let out a sigh of relief before collapsing in her chair.

Yuri stood from the floor, "Well, that was close. Flynn would have probably killed me if had come in a few minutes earlier."

Estelle smiled, "Yes, very close." She stood face to face with Yuri, "You never did tell me how the story would end."

Yuri shrugged, "I made up most of it. You give it a try, Miss. Writer's Block."

"I love you."

Yuri cupped her cheek, "I love you, too."

"I think I'll end it with 'they lived happily ever after.'"

Yuri shook his head, "Nope, you can't do that."

"Why not?" Estelle pouted.

He placed a small kiss on her lips, "Because that was only the beginning."

Estelle smiled. He was right this was only the beginning for them, filled with many more adventures to come.

"Right, the beginning." Estelle wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him tightly.

"_I guess I don't have writer's block anymore. And if I ever do again, I know who to go to for a good romance scene." _Estelle thought smiling up a Yuri, who smiled back before pecking her on the forehead and returning the hug. A start of the next chapter in her story, and it was going to be an adventure all its own.

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Flynn had left the library ten minutes ago, and was heading down a hallway to his office when he suddenly stopped.

"Why was Repede in the library with Estelle?" Wheels began to turn in the young commandant's mind when things finally clicked.

"YURI!"

Flynn went racing back towards the library and threw open the doors. He was a surprised to find no one there, but a small little note sitting precariously on the desk.

Flynn snatched up the note to read its messy handwriting.

_** Flynn,**_

_**Estelle and I are going to Dahngrest to visit the others. Estelle said she missed them, and after the time she's spent in this dull place, she could use a little adventure. Be back in a few weeks. Don't wait up.**_

_** -Yuri**_

"ESTELLE! YURI! GET BACK HERE!"

And with that, the commandant was rushing out of the palace chasing after the newly formed couple that was already long gone.

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**Well what did you think! I hope you liked it or at least thought it was interesting. If you have a comment leave a review, if you want to see more Tales of Vesperia stories just leave a review or PM me! **

**This story was totally different in my mind, but I like what I did with it better than what I first thought of! So I am pretty happy with it, I don't know why, but I've always liked my Tales fics the first time around rather than having to reread it and fix it a lot like with my other ones.**

**R&R and tell me what you thought! It helps me become a better writer overall, and that's what I really want to be! Thanks for reading! **


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